On the Salish Sea
This event will feature Justin Neal, a Squamish playwright and 2024 SFU Shadbolt Fellow. His latest play, Keepers of the Salish Sea, premiered in November 2024, and infused Coast Salish knowledge with the human quest for the meaning of life.
This event will be followed by a reception in the Piano Lounge, Graham House.
From the late 90s to the 2010s Justin Neal juggled day jobs with amateur theatre at night. In 2013, he took a leap of faith to focus on dramatic writing full-time, relocating to his family’s Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw lands to pursue a joint MFA degree in Creative Writing and Theatre at UBC. His screenplays have placed him in dozens of competitions, programs, and residencies across North America; his feature screenplay The Skins Game will commence filming in 2026. As playwright and founder of Holy Crow Arts, he has premiered new plays, So Damn Proud (2021), and Keepers of the Salish Sea (2024). Neal is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre’s Film Program Writers’ Lab and a 2024-25 Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at SFU.
Series image: Gustave Courbet, The Calm Sea, 1869. The Met; public domain.
Where the Waves Take Us: Art, Identity, and the Sea
This public series, organized by Green College writer in residence Clara Kumagai, is a multidisciplinary exploration of creativity and the ocean, and of the relationship between humans and the natural world.
October 29, 2025
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Coach House
6201 Cecil Green Park Rd